Preclinical studies of the triazolo[1,5-a]pyrimidine derivative WS-716 as a highly potent,specific and orally active P-glycoprotein(P-gp)inhibitor

Multidrug resistance(MDR) is the main cause of clinical treatment failure and poor prognosis in cancer. Targeting P-glycoprotein(P-gp) has been regarded as an effective strategy to overcome MDR. In this work, we reported our preclinical studies of the triazolo[1,5-a]pyrimidine-based compound WS-716 as a highly potent, specific, and orally active P-gp inhibitor. Through direct binding to P-gp,WS-716 inhibited efflux function of P-gp and specifically reversed P-gp-mediated MDR to paclitaxel(PTX) in multiple resistant cell lines, without changing its expression or subcellular localization. WS-716 and PTX synergistically inhibited formation of colony and 3D spheroid, induced apoptosis and cell cycle arrest at G2/M phase in resistant SW620/Ad300 cells. In addition, WS-716 displayed minimal effect on the drug-metabolizing enzyme cytochrome P4503A4(CYP3A4). Importantly, WS-716 increased sensitivity of both pre-clinically and clinically derived MDR tumors to PTX in vivo with the T/C value of 29.7% in patient-derived xenograft(PDX) models. Relative to PTX treatment alone, combination of WS-716 and PTX caused no obvious adverse reactions. Taken together, our preclinical studies revealed therapeutic promise of WS-716 against MDR cancer, the promising data warrant its further development for cancer therapy.